It’s how I do things. I start each day with prayer and Bible reading, often locating myself in the living room to avoid disturbing the rest of my family. It’s usually dark when I walk in the room because of the early hour, and because the blinds are still closed from the previous evening.
One morning after my prayer time, I picked up my Bible and lay on the couch next to one of the windows. A light peered through the closed slats of the window blind. Intrigued, I stood, then stepped back and looked directly at the closed window blind but couldn’t see any light coming through. When I lay back on the couch, with my head on the headrest, I could see the light.
Isn’t that the way our spiritual lives are sometimes? God is light. He’s bright all the time, but we can’t always see His light even though it’s staring us right in the face. Perhaps we’re too busy. Perhaps we’re blinded by our own sin. Maybe we’re blinded by the devil. Could be we know intellectually Jesus Christ dwells in our hearts, but we can’t see it or feel it or taste it. Why? We’re not looking upward to the source of the light from the right angle.
If you’ve ever felt like you’ve lost that close connection you once had with God, then change angles. I’ve lost sight occasionally. Even when I’m consistently practicing the spiritual disciplines of daily Bible reading, confession, prayer, fellowship, and church attendance, I’m still plagued at times by memories of past sins or failures, or with terrible thoughts. What a wretched man I am. This is exactly the time when our faith needs to kick in and recall God’s promises to us. He has washed us and made us clean. Reject the condemning voice of the devil, in the name of Jesus, and revel in the restoring voice of our Savior.
God has a seat waiting for us in heaven, but He’s got a lot of work to do through us before we get there.
Give Him your best at whatever He’s called you to do.
(Photo courtesy of office.microsoft.com.)
(For more devotions, visit us at www.christiandevotions.us.)
Rick Stockwell has been a Christian for nearly thirty years. He’s currently working on a novel and resides
in Connecticut with his wife, Donna. Their two grown children reside in Virginia.